Long ago, the Brother's Grimm set about writing their tales on magic paper with a special pen. The paper brought their stories alive- literally; the characters from each of the fairy tales began appearing in real life, destined to play out their stories over and over again. However, over time all of the characters became corrupted, evil and a menace to society. A hero emerged, a servant of the Grimm's realized the special pen holds the power to rid the Corrupted characters from Earth. Now, a new hero is needed. Alice is a high school student who has the most wonderful boyfriend that she can imagine, Edward. Edward is handsome, sophisticated, mature, rich and has parents that never seem to be around. With the end of the school year coming, Alice only has to pass her fencing final and has a volunteer position at the library coming up. In the library basement, she finds an interesting pen in between the pages of The Grimm Fairytales and her adventure as the next hero begins. Too bad her first mission is to kill Prince Charming.

I love fairytale retellings and this series of twelve stories about the Grimm's characters coming to life grabbed me right in the beginning. I loved Alice's character, she absolutely loves books, is into the sport of fencing, and is intelligent. She also makes realistic decisions for a teenager; I was impressed with her thought process about her friendships, alcohol and sex. When Alice learns about being a hero, she takes it slow and takes everything in. The Briar Rabbit as the hero's guide is awesome, I have a feeling that he will be a favorite character of mine in the books to come. I enjoyed that there were some lesser known fairy tales thrown in here, too; it definitely peaked my interest. Though I figured out who Prince Charming was right off the bat, this is a pretty awesome young adult fairytale retelling with a great heroine. I will definitely be working my way through the rest of the episodes.

This book is free for Kindle on Amazon if you want to check it out. ( )